Congratulations

From JanglesMGMT has always felt like one of the more interesting bands of the late 00's / early '10s. Their debut, Oracular Spectacular, very quickly became a hipster badge with hits like Time to Pretend and Electric Feel. If you check out the YouTube video of them playing to a crowd of 10 at Wesleyan it's easy to see why -- they're just two nerds with a cultivated taste in music and an ironic sense of humor. Once they blew up, though, it seemed like they wanted to be anything but indie stars. (Maybe that was another thing that made them hipster flag bearers.) They talked a lot about how the back half of their debut, with it's psychedelic leanings and winding compositions, was more reflective of their ambitions than the hook-led pop sound of their hits. Their follow up album, Congratulations, was them proving that point through their music. They even went so far as to pre-release on streaming platforms before it's official release to try and circumvent the expectations of a hit. It's stripped back from their debut sound. It's way more organic and analog. It's much more dense in it's intent. I haven't listened since it was first released. If I'm honest, I felt it way to try-hard after the ease of their early success. 15 years later and pretty far removed from the context of their career, I think it's time for another shot.